SHRINE DINA BÉLANGER IN HEBERTVILLE, CANADA

In 1994, a group of 48 pilgrims from Herbertville, from the Region of Lake St-Jean, accompanied by Mme. Thérèse Richard, a great friend of Dina and sister of one of our Religious, came to pray at the tomb of Blessed Dina in Sillery, Quebec. 

Father Jean Bassard, Parish priest of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Herbertville, a parish erected in 1968, encourages very much the initiative to make known and to pray to Blessed Dina, and he himself went to Sillery to pray to her. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the Movement of Christian women, the people of Herbertville began immediately to prepare the welcome and reception that they wanted to give Blessed Dina.

On April 19 and 20, 1997, the centenary year of the birth of Dina, on the invitation of Father Brassard, four Religious of Jesus and Mary went to the Church of Hebertville for the inauguration of a shrine in honor of Blessed Dina Bélanger.  This shrine, like any other shrine is not important because of its installation, but it is important because of the place that the parishioners keep in their hearts for the one that they have learnt to love.  They try to make her known and all the Region of Lake St-Jean benefits from this.

After the inauguration of the modest shrine, they pray to Dina with great fervor and the favors multiply for the joy of all.  Did she not promise that from Heaven she would give us joy?  She gives courage, consolation and peace to those who pray to her. 

A lamp burns always at the side of her picture and it is a privilege to be able to pay for it.

 

SHRINE DINA BELANGER IN THE PARISH OF ST ROCH, QUEBEC,CANADA

Saint Roch located on the lower part of the city of Quebec, before it was, par excellence, the French speaking and popular neighborhood is now the more ancient working suburb of the city and the living witness of four centuries of history of the city of Quebec.

In this neighborhood, where the Belanger family lived, is where on April 30, 1897 Blessed Dina Bélanger was born at number 168 of Street Notre Dame des Anges, receiving the same day Baptism in the de Saint Roch, which was erected in 1829.  The present Church inaugurated in 1920 and reconstructed on the same place as the first one built in 1811, is the largest Church of Quebec and one of the more beautiful temples of the city.

On September 4, 1993, first feast of Dina Bélanger as “Blessed”, with the assistance of more than two-thousand five hundred persons, Mgr. Clement Fecteau, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Quebec, celebrated the solemn Mass, concelebrated by about twenty priests among which Father Pierre-André Fournier, the Parish priest of Saint Roch and Father Marcel Dion, Parish priest of Notre-Dame-de-Jacques-Cartier, the Parish of Dina.

At the moment of the “Gloria” there was the unveiling of the maxi-photo which served in the Basilica of St. Peter of Rome, for the beatification of Dina Bélanger by Pope John Paul II and that now is exposed in this Church in the Shrine Dina Belanger situated on the left side of the central nave.

On the square of this Church, which is the center of the life of the neighborhood and where numerous events take place throughout the whole year, before the celebration there was half an hour of animation by 20 musicians in honor of Dina.

At present, this Shrine in the heart of old Quebec, is visited by numerous persons, who sure of the protection of their ancient citizen, Blessed Dina Belanger, entrust to her their projects and needs.